BILL ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1479| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ UNFINISHED BUSINESS Bill No: SB 1479 Author: Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee Amended: 5/10/10 Vote: 21 SENATE PUBLIC EMP. & RET. COMMITTEE : 6-0, 4/12/10 AYES: Correa, Ashburn, Corbett, Cox, Ducheny, Liu SENATE FLOOR : 35-0, 4/15/10 AYES: Aanestad, Alquist, Ashburn, Calderon, Cedillo, Cogdill, Corbett, Correa, Cox, DeSaulnier, Florez, Hancock, Harman, Hollingsworth, Huff, Kehoe, Leno, Liu, Lowenthal, Maldonado, Negrete McLeod, Oropeza, Padilla, Pavley, Price, Romero, Runner, Simitian, Steinberg, Strickland, Walters, Wolk, Wright, Wyland, Yee NO VOTE RECORDED: Denham, Ducheny, Dutton, Wiggins, Vacancy ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 7/1/10 (Consent) - See last page for vote SUBJECT : 1937 Act County Retirement Law System Housekeeping Bill SOURCE : Alameda County Employees Retirement Association South Coast Air Quality Management District State Association of County Employee Retirement Systems CONTINUED SB 1479 Page 2 DIGEST : This bill makes technical and non-controversial changes to the 1937 Act County Retirement Law. Assembly Amendments made clarifying changes and added provisions regarding the exemption of a person, making less than $80 per month, from membership in the association. ANALYSIS : 1.Existing law: A. Establishes the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937, which governs 20 independent county retirement systems. B. Allows an employee who moves from one public employer to another public employer to accrue service credit in separate public retirement systems and to have reciprocity among the different retirement systems with regard to certain benefits; however, that employee cannot receive reciprocity if service is earned in more than one retirement system during the same period. C. Allows the retirement board of a county retirement system to set the date upon which a new employee becomes a credited member of the system, but that date must be no later than six weeks after the day of entering employment with the participating country. This bill allows the retirement board of a county to set the date upon which a new employee becomes, or ceases being, a member, but that date could be no later than 12 weeks after the day of entering employment with the county and no sooner than 12 weeks prior to ending employment under the previous employer. Source: State Association of County Employee Retirement Systems 2.Existing law requires that counties in the 1937 Act system transfer payments to the county retirement associations to fund the cost of retiree benefits. CONTINUED SB 1479 Page 3 Existing law also allows a county board of supervisors to authorize the county auditor to make payments to the retirement system in advance of when those payments would otherwise be due. This bill allows a district in San Bernardino County that participates in the San Bernardino County Employee Retirement Association (SBCERA) to also make advance payments to that retirement system. Source: South Coast Air Quality Management District, a SBCERA participating agency 3.Existing law establishes the Supplemental Retiree Benefits Reserve (SRBR), to be used exclusively for the benefit of retirees under county retirement systems that have elected to be subject to those provisions (specifically, Alameda, Kern and Tulare counties). This bill clarifies that the administrative costs of operating the SRBR in Alameda County may be paid through the main retirement program in order to comply with IRS rulings regarding the exclusive benefits rule. Source: Alameda County Employees Retirement Association 4.Existing law authorizes a retirement board to include, by regulation, provisions exempting or excluding from membership persons whose tenure is temporary, seasonal or intermittent, or for part time only, persons whose rate of compensation is fixed at a rate of pay by the day or hour. This bill deletes the authorization for a retirement board to exempt or exclude from membership a person whose rate of compensation is less than $80 per month. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local: No SUPPORT : (Verified 7/2/10) Alameda County Employees' Retirement Association CONTINUED SB 1479 Page 4 (co-source) State Association of County Retirement Systems (co-source) South Coast Air Quality Management District (co-source) ASSEMBLY FLOOR : AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall, Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, Norby, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada NO VOTE RECORDED: Fletcher, Ma, John A. Perez, Vacancy CPM:cm 7/2/10 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED